Wednesday, 30 November 2011

As much as I love wine I've never been to a wine tasting before. I've always been a bit scared it would be full of wine snobs and I'd look stupid for being a novice.

That wasn't the case. We were a mixed bag, some wine snobs, some wine lovers and some novices.

I don't want to tell people too much about the event itself, because that would spoil it for people going themselves, so I'll tell you about the lovely wines I sampled and not give you any of the tips/info to go along with it. I made notes all the way through - I need a wine folder!

We sampled six wines; one champagne, two white wines and three red wines. I can safely say I learnt more about wine in the two hours I was there than I've ever gleaned from leafing through wine books over the years and all the bottles of wine I've drunk...

Listening to Laura was so inspiring, I love meeting people who are so passionate and knowledgeable about a subject.

The first wine we tried was the champagne, which we had paired with smoked salmon.

I love champagne, this was my favourite of all the whites, and I was impressed it was a bottle I could afford - Heidsieck 'Gold Top' 2005, £18 from Majestic.

Next up we had a Riesling, a wine my friend Chrissie would adore, but one I wouldn't normally pick. Drinking it with the prawn brought out the acidity of the wine, which made it a bit more enjoyable for me.

The other white was a Pouilly Fuisse, again one I wouldn't normally pick with it being of the Chardonnay variety - but it was actually enjoyable.

Moving onto the reds we had a Moulin D'Angludet, which was lovely, but way out of my normal price range at £30 a bottle. We had this with some sausage, I could tell you why but you should go along and find out for yourself!

The second red was my favourite, the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, an Italian wine - this one being from the village of Montepulciano, not using the grape. We had this with parmeasan, which made the cheese taste out of this world, it gave it a wonderful creamy taste. I'll be popping down to Latitude Wines in Leeds to pick up a bottle of this for my Dad to try!

The last wine was a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley in California. Priced at £21.59 it's not one I'd buy for myself, but it was enjoyable and had an immense fruity flavour. We had this paired up with a slice of chorizo.

Monday, 28 November 2011

I've been a busy little bee of late, this week isn't any better - Las Iguanas tonight, meeting a friend for a drink tomorrow, wine tasting on Wednesday, Cardamom Black on Thursday and at a gig on Friday....

On Friday I grabbed a quick lunch with a colleague at Wokon in Headingley. I opted for a seafood noodles dish, which was nice, although the calamari was rubbery. It was possibly the hottest food I've had in a long, long time. I'm talking heat hot here, not spicy hot. I tried leaving it to cool but kept burning my mouth! We know for next time that we have enough time to walk back to the office while it cools down to an acceptable eating temperature.

On Saturday I went to a Thanksgiving Buffet and stuffed myself with an obscene amount of food, and drank wine from a pint glass.... I was having it in half pints though, not full pints of wine.... I had a super evening, with lovely company and tremendous food. I also had a revelation trying KT's Pumpkin Pie - it was heavenly!!! I thought I hated pumpkin, but if all pumpkin pie tastes as good as hers then I'm a convert.

(I suspect they don't all taste as good.)

On Sunday I had a brief trip to the German Market for a Sausage and a hot choc with baileys. It was far too busy and filled with idiots with MASSIVE pushchairs and was making me angry, so we left and I bought some new shoes.

In the evening I was at Phill's and he made us Pork sandwiches with stuffing and apple sauce for tea.

I'm just looking at the Las Iguanas menu to try and decide what to have for tea this evening. http://www.iguanas.co.uk/pdf_menus/las-iguanas-leeds-food-menu.pdf Has anyone else found their website confusing? It's taken me ten minutes just to get to the menu! I won't be posting a review on them, I'm out for my Mum's birthday and don't want to be rude stopping them eating while I take pictures of it all...

Sunday, 27 November 2011

EXCLUSIVE NEW ASIAN RESTAURANT TO OPEN IN HARROGATE’S
EMPIRE THEATRE BUILDING

Discerning
food lovers in Yorkshire will be able to indulge in a deliciously mouth-watering
selection of traditional South Asian cuisine when new restaurant Cardamom Black
opens in Harrogate on December 1.

Owned and
managed by restaurateur Nick Rahman, the plush new eatery is situated in
Harrogate’s former Empire Theatre building. It will offer diners a wide
selection of South Asian dishes encompassing succulent starters, speciality
sharing plates, a fresh fish bar, classic and unique main courses, delectable fresh
desserts and a wide selection of fine wines, champagne, cocktails and
beers.

Nick, through his
team of specialist contractors, has painstakingly brought the old theatre back
to its former glory and it now boasts a stunningly unique interior that blends
contemporary design with traditional features, including a grand stage area
where live entertainment will be staged on selected evenings.

The restaurant
also has two separate bars, an iced fish bar displaying fresh seafood, a daybed
area where guests can relax and enjoy a special grazing menu, and options for
private dining and conferencing.

Cardamom
Black’s menu will include traditional South Asian dishes made with locally
sourced ingredients, effectively fusing time-honoured traditions with the
spirit of the West.

Speaking about
the new restaurant, Nick said: “I have wanted to open my own restaurant in
Harrogate for several years but could never find the right venue. As soon as I
learned the former Empire Theatre building was available I jumped at the chance
as I knew that with the right investment, the beautiful building could be
restored to create a truly stunning and unique restaurant interior.

“Harrogate has
a vibrant restaurant scene, but I feel it lacks a high-end Asian offering and
Cardamom Black will fill that gap, bringing unique South Asian dishes to
Harrogate that are all made using only the finest, locally sourced ingredients.

“This,
combined with glamorous surroundings and meticulous service, will make for a
truly enjoyable and unique dining experience and I’m extremely excited about
welcoming both locals and people from across Yorkshire and beyond into Cardamom
Black.”

Nick Rahman’s
family have been involved in the restaurant sector for over forty years. His
father owns part of the largest chain of Kashmiri Restaurants in the UK and so he
has been involved in the restaurant sector his whole life, most recently as a
senior board manager within the chain.

Having run and
managed restaurants within the chain, Nick knows what does and doesn’t work and
has used that experience throughout the creation of Cardamom Black.

Cardamom Black
is situated in the old Empire Theatre building, opposite Harrogate Theatre, and
will be open from 5pm-10.30pm on Sundays & Mondays, 5pm-11pm Tuesday to
Thursday, 5pm-12midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

To book a
table or find out more about what the restaurant offers call 01423 31 31 36 or
visit www.cardamomblack.com.

Saturday, 26 November 2011

This week has been all about Prosecco for me. On Saturday I had a friend round for Sausage and Bean Casserole and maximum booze consumption. I had two brandies while I waited for her to arrive, then we had a bottle of wine with our casserole, the wine wasn't of a great quality, so we decided to go purchase more. On the way it seemed like an excellent idea to go to the pub...

At the pub I had three pints of ale and another brandy... It all got a bit hazy after that... We'd stumbled into Sainsbury's to purchase the finest wines known to man. At some point I declared fizz a necessity, and we saw the Prosecco was on offer. I vaguely remember the journey home, cracking open the Prosecco and then playing on the dancing game for the Kinnect whilst shoving our faces full of crisps. We somehow got through a bottle and a half of Prosecco, on top of the rest of the booze.

Needless to say I wasn't very well on Sunday....

Fast forward to Monday and there's still half a bottle of Prosecco going to waste in my fridge. It seemed rude not to drink it.

This Prosecco is on offer in Sainsbury's at £6.99 down from £10.49. I only know this because I looked on the Sainsbury's website, not from remembering....

It's the best supermarket Prosecco I've had, but I've only had a couple - I'll need to do some further research before I can declare it my favourite of all supermarket Prosecco's. It was delicately fizzy, deliciously crisp, but more subtle than champagne. Definitely one that I'd purchase again.

On Thursday I also had Prosecco at Distrikt and then at Pin in Leeds. I'd put the Distrikt one at the best of the two, but the £20 price hurt my purse the day before pay day!

Tuesday, 22 November 2011

I went to Scarborough last weekend, we had the usual fish and chips but couldn't resist going in the fudge shop and spending some pennies. (The ones we had left after spending a fortune on the 2p machines....).

I picked out chocolate with crunchie for me, chocolate orange for my papa, chocolate with mars bar for mama and Phil had halves of strawberry and aero and vanilla and twirl.

I had a piece of mine with a cup of tea as soon as we got back.

I was inspired by the shop and decided to have a go at making some fudge myself...

It was really simple to do, just melting the chocolate and butter in with the condensed milk, sieving in the icing sugar (which I only remembered after I'd thrown a load of it in, hence the white speckles) and then pouring it into the tin and then putting it in the fridge to set.

The loaf tin I used wasn't ideal, it made it hard to get the fudge out. I was a bit disappointed that the fudge was a bit too squidgy too. I'm told I shouldn't have used icing sugar and used sugar instead... I'll try that next time!

Thursday, 17 November 2011

I can't take the credit for picking this wine, I'd grabbed a bottle of French red when in Tesco, but then had this one pointed out to me. As we were eating Italian food an Italian wine seemed appropriate to go with it. I think it was £4.49 down from £8.99.

The Tesco website tells me:

Ruby red with light orange highlights.

The spicy nose features notes of black pepper, vanilla and chocolate, which carry through to the soft, velvety, well-balanced palate.

Erm... I can't say I got those, this wasn't an overly fruity red, I'd put it as being Medium bodied. It wasn't overpowering, nor was it weak and flavourless. It was just right for drinking whilst eating my Spag Bol.

Not sure I'd purchase it again, but it's well worthy of it's place as wine of the week.

Method
Chop the onion, if you're using fresh garlic then peel and crush the cloves. Fry the onions with the garlic. When they've softened add the mince. While the mince is browning peel and chop the carrots and then add to the pan. Add the tinned tomatoes to the pan and allow them to cook off. While that's happening chop the mushrooms.

Ideally use a bigger pan than I did....

When the liquid from the tomatoes has cooked down a bit add in the mushrooms and the passata, then lastly the puree and some herbs, and finally some salt and black pepper. I tend to use dried mixed herbs, and then if I have it I serve with fresh basil.

I let my bolognese cook for as long as I can, the longer it cooks the better the flavour I find.

Sometimes I crumble a beef oxo over it, to add more depth. If I haven't used carrots then I sometimes add some Worcestershire sauce to sweeten it.

Now I know some people brown their mince then remove it and cook the onions, but I can't usually be bothered with doing that.

Monday, 7 November 2011

My Dish, the recipe sharing social network..... have launched a new competition today - Nostalgic Recipe, you can find out more at http://www.mydish.co.uk/nostalgic. The competition prize is £100 of M&S vouchers, which I wouldn't mind myself.

Although, I do have to admit, I wouldn't eat Birdseye fish fingers as a child, I only liked the cheapest possible ones that didn't taste fishy in any way. As a grown up I can now love fish, but nothing is better for a hangover than a cheap fish finger sandwich.

Friday, 4 November 2011

On Friday last week I attended a blogger event at La Rocas. I'd suggested they do a blogger event, and tried several times to get them to email out info to the other attendees but that didn't happen, I felt kind of responsible for the event, and quite miffed they ignored my advice. We weren't given any information when we got there either, strange way to handle a blogger event really. I've since been told that the twitter account of La Rocas isn't handled by the restaurant itself, which can't have helped matters.

But anyway.

I've been to La Rocas before, for lunch. We took advantage of the 3 for £5 deal - it was great, so I was expecting good stuff from the evening menu too.

We were settled down at a table and served a large amount of food. My favourite dish was the sharing platter. I personally don't care that it wasn't "authentic", and I'd imagine neither do any of their customers. They don't pretend to be an authentic tapas restaurant, and I like garlic bread. The majority of the food was OK, but unfortunately a couple of dishes really weren't.

Would it stop me from eating at La Rocas again - no. But I was disappointed they served it to a group of food bloggers though, the reviews of the food haven't been good, I feel for La Rocas that the event wasn't successful.

I wouldn't normally order a dessert in a tapas restaurant but I was really hoping we'd be wowed by them and it would turn things round food-wise. They were homemade, and sweet. I'd change a few things if I was making them, but that's just me.

After the food we were invited to the bar to try a cocktail each. As with most cocktails in Wakefield they were very colourful...

I enjoyed the evening, and I will still recommend La Rocas for lunch. But I can't get over feeling so disappointed by the food and the fact nobody spoke to us though. It was a wasted opportunity for La Rocas.

I also think I've been to too many blogger events recently, and will be taking a break from them to concentrate on my own food. Being so busy is taking it's toll on me.